Every year as we approach the holiday season, handset makers and carriers want to cash in on big spending. September is a good time to start, as the kids are heading back to school or off to college. Verizon recently released the Samsung Galaxy SIII, which set the bar high for many upcoming phones. Since Google purchased Motorola Mobility, the two have coordinated to make a few enticing Android phones. I won't do a complete overview of each phone, but the summary should be enough to decide whether the phone is for you or not.
Motorola recently launched three RAZR models: the M, HD, and HD MAXX.
- RAZR M: the cheaper of the three phones (listed at $99, a steal compared to most smartphones), but you get what you pay for. The M has lesser specs than the other two models, but for that price, a lot of people will be willing to skimp on some hardware to save the money. the M has a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, but only 8GB of storage. However, you can always buy a micro-SD card for relatively cheap money, so that's not too bad. The M has a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display, with 960x540 resolution. While the resolution is not great, it's still decent with such a large screen. The 8MP camera is up to any other phone's standard, but the secondary VGA camera is obviously a downgrade in quality. The M has 1080p video recording, which seems to be the norm nowadays, but is still very good of course. It is not listed as having LTE, but we should assume that it will, as not having Verizon's 4G LTE is wasting time and money. It's got a solid battery size at 2000 mAh, but you'll find that it won't last through the day if fully charged in the morning. It's also a slim 8.3mm, but one would think it would be even thinner with the lacking of top-quality internals and a smaller battery than the other RAZR models.
- RAZR HD: it has the same processor and RAM as the M, but a much better display wielding a 4.7 inch Super AMOLED HD with 1,280x720 resolution. It also has an 8MP camera, but a better secondary at 1.3MP compared to the M's VGA. It does come with CDMA/LTE and global capability, although that has a fee for the startup. It weighs 20g more than the M, but has a 2,530 mAh battery, which, combined with the larger screen size, makes total sense. A surprise about the HD though, is that it is only .1mm thicker than the M...seems like a valuable tradeoff to me.
- RAZR HD MAXX: it is basically the same phone as the HD, but, similar to the difference between the Droid RAZR and the Droid RAZR MAXX, the HD MAXX has a much heftier battery. Same as the RAZR MAXX, the HD MAXX utilizes a 3,300 mAh, for longer usage. While the bigger battery can be helpful so the user doesn't have to recharge as often, it also makes the phone .9mm thicker than the standard HD and 11g heavier. That may not seem like alot, but .9mm is a sizeable amount when comparing to around 9mm total.
Nokia has also released a solid phone, although I personally prefer both Android and iOS over Windows Phone.
The Lumia 920: it is one of the initial WP8 phones, but Nokia has fallen off the map quite a bit lately, so we'll have to wait for a review to see how good it really is. It comes with a 4.5 inch HD+ display, a dual core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, and an 8MP rear-facing camera that can record 1080p video. The screen comes with a WXGA 1,280x768 resolotuion, which is very good in comparison to other current smartphones. The battery is a somewhat low 2,000 mAh, but there will be some excellent portable power sources coming to market relatively soon. So until then, keep a charger with you.
There is also rumor of a 5-inch HTC handset TBA soon, which we will evaluate upon it's official press release.
Until then, it looks like you should go with the trusted Galaxy SIII, the RAZR HD, or wait for another phone to come out soon (iPhone 5 perhaps?).
source: Engadget.com
IMO there are only two companies that are putting out beautiful, iconic hardware at this point and that is Apple and Nokia with the new 920. I would even go as far as to say apple's design is becoming a little long in the tooth. The only real detractor from the Lumia 920 is the OS, but I am confident that with the new WP8 framework being tied to Windows 8 the app ecosystem will vastly improve. From a usability standpoint all three apps are pretty much on par although execution is different and that all depends on personal preference. However, from an app standpoint Android and WP8 are severely lagging behind based on pure quality and going forward I see WP8 developing a better ecosystem than Android.
ReplyDeleteThis obviously doesn't bring into account the features/capabilities of each OS. Android takes the cake in that category because you can do whatever you want with an Android phone whereas iOS and WP8 are very closed. This again comes down to personal preference because some people don't need/care about rooting their phone and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a huge step for Nokia IMO. Last time I heard them making any noise was when they introduced those lame brick phones that everyone had. It's best feature was the snake game!
ReplyDeleteNot to say that Sammy or HTC are putting out bad phones, but you know when you see an iPhone or one of these new Lumias whereas up until recently HTC and Sammy were putting out pretty generic slabs
ReplyDeleteIMO the Galaxy SIII is by far and obviously the most beautiful and iconic hardware that I've seen to date. I haven't seen anything I like from Nokia since the walkie-talkie phones. I also haven't seen anything I like from Windows in awhile, but I have heard great things about WP8. I also haven't really seen Android lagging in terms of app quality based on usage of my phone and iTouch, but overall I can see how that's possible.
ReplyDeleteI guess you could say the S3 is "generic," but I find it to be the industry leader and the beginning of a new wave of about-5" phones with high quality displays and at least dual-core processors. The iPhone is nice and all, but it's old news. I also don't think there's even a possibility to compare Samsung to HTC. I wouldn't even put HTC in the same breath as Samsung, Apple, or Motorola.
ReplyDeleteLooking at multiple images of the Lumia 920, I think it's hideous. I hate the square corners and I don't like the brick feel it seems to have. That goes back to personal preference though.
ReplyDeleteWindows isn't going to improve its ecosystem through 1st party apps. With that being said since the phone OS shares code with the desktop OS and Windows Desktop OS is the most popular in the world, developers will find it much easier to make a WP8 app based on their Windows program. This will specifically bring gaming to the forefront of WP8 because of XBOX integration plus the fact that any game made for Windows (and if there's a computer game being made, its being made for windows) could be ported over to the phone.
ReplyDeleteA glaring example of Android's poor app quality is their Facebook app. If the developers took the time to write the app in Android's native code (Java) you could see 2x speed improvements very easily.
Now I'm not much of a large screen guy (4.5" is even pushing it for me) but the HTC One X is at least on par with SGS3 and other "flagship" phones right now and I strongly disagree with HTC not even being mentioned in the same breath. I would say this year all of the companies really started to differentiate themselves from one another but up until last year each company was releasing 8 phones a year and you couldn't tell the difference between em unless you looked at specs.
I'm not gonna talk about gaming, because I personally don't care if I can play Xbox on my phone...that's what I have an Xbox for.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not big into Facebook anymore because of Twitter, but I do agree that the speed at which Facebook works is snail-like.
In terms of the One X, there are a few better specs than the S3, but overall it's definitely not as good. Comparable, I'll give you that...as good, no can do.
Gaming was just an example b/c every game is made for windows. If a dev makes a twitter app or a note taking app or a skype app for Win8 they made it very easy to make it for WP8 as well.Facebook is also just an example, there are plenty of iOS clone apps that clearly were just shitty ports.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the only clear better part of the SGS3 (in terms of specs) is it's GPU performance but since you don't game on your phone much that should affect you very much. I'm not saying one is better than the other but I don't see a clear winner when comparing the two. You wouldn't have been able to get the One X anyways but I'm curious as to what you consider superior b/c you own one of the phones lol.
I'll do them solely by spec. The Galaxy S3 is slightly thinner, which is somewhat important, as all phones are trying to minimize hardware while maximizing screen and power. The S3 also has a slightly bigger display, by .1 inches. And still, the S3 is barely bigger in total size than the One X. It's .07'' longer, .02'' wider, and surprisingly, that .01'' thinner. The One X has an 1,800 mAh battery, which will definitely not last nearly long enough to satisfy the user's needs. The S3 has a 2,100 mAh battery, and that doesn't really do the job either. Both handsets lacking there, but the S3 is numerically better. They both have an 8MP rear facing camera, but the S3 has a slightly better 1.9MP front facing in comparison to the 1.3MP counterpart of the One X. The S3 has 2GB of RAM, the One X has 1GB. The One X has 16GB of onboard storage, the S3 has 16GB and 32GB options. Both standby time and talk time are lower for the One X, mostly due to the smaller battery. I'm unsure of the One X's SD card capability, but I know the S3 has up to 64GB max. The S3 weights 4.7 ounces compared to the 4.6 ounces of the One X, which is most likely due to the larger size and higher battery capacity. The One X has Beats audio.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think these specs show that the S3 is better in almost every single way. And that's exactly why I bought it, whether or not the One X was an option would not have mattered. The S3 is the bar-setting phone at the current time, and I haven't come across another handset yet that can size up.
Reaz, personally though the screen size at that point doesn't matter matter cuz they are both too big, and front facing cameras are pretty worthless so .6 mp also doesn't affect me. Also, although its not huge, I would prefer the ceramic unibody as opposed to the plastic phone. However, the battery and storage is definitely enough for me to give the edge to the SGS3 overall but with all that being said HTC deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the other companies. The Galaxy Note 2 definitely sizes up to the SGS3 btw.
ReplyDelete